New GSK-Alphabet venture to fight diseases with tiny electronic implants
LONDON — GlaxoSmithKline has teamed up with Alphabet’s life sciences unit to create a new company focused on fighting diseases by targeting electrical signals in the body.Verily Life Sciences — known as Google’s life sciences unit until last year — and Britain’s biggest drug maker will together contribute £540m over seven years to the new company, Galvani Bioelectronics, Monday’s announcement said.It will be based at GSK’s Stevenage research centre north of London.GSK first unveiled its ambitions in bioelectronics three years ago and believes it is ahead of big-pharma rivals in developing medicines that use electrical impulses rather than traditional chemicals or proteins.For Verily, the tie-up is the latest sign that Google’s desire to move beyond search engines into biology and other scientific areas is gaining traction.Verily already has several other medical projects in the works, including the development of a smart contact lens in partnership with the Swiss drug maker Novartis...
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